TRON: Catalyst Review - A Rewarding Return To The Grid
It’s a dark time. The Grid is dying. The Programs are rebelling, and Exo is right in the middle of it all.
After previewing TRON: Catalyst a few months back, I left with positive impressions and was curious to see how things would shape up on release. Thankfully, the finished game was worth the wait, even with a few small blemishes.
The story focuses on Exo, a courier who becomes caught up in events after a package she was delivering explodes. This results in her being contaminated by a glitch, allowing her the ability to loop over events. If you’re fearful that TRON: Catalyst has that roguelite DNA, then I’m glad to say it does, as Exo retains her memories of events through prior runs through the loop, giving you the setup for some neat little puzzles to solve as she gets to grips with these abilities.
She’ll be doing this while avoiding the Grid’s peacekeeping forces, along with Conn, who seeks to tame these powers for his own nefarious desire for power.
The way the story develops actually managed to surprise me – I hadn’t expected it going in, or after my time with the preview, but it sat with me in quite a few ways. The core is centred around Exo escaping in order to find answers. Another important part is in the encounters she has with a number of other characters in the story, and using her abilities to help them, ultimately helping to improve things in a crapshoot world.
I couldn’t help but be reminded of the things we’re seeing in society as we speak, and in ways it connects to wider themes going back as far as the original TRON in terms of uniting against a common threat that really resonated with me.
All of that would be for naught if the game wasn’t enjoyable to play, and thankfully it is. TRON: Catalyst takes place in an isometric world, with each chapter taking place in a different area. Though Exo has the same goal in each, that being to find a way out to the next, there’ll be a lot of exploring, puzzling and talking to other characters in order to make it happen.
Exo’s ability to loop gives the set-up for some interesting tasks to solve, but I kind of wish there had been more involved uses of them throughout the game, as it made for some really memorable moments in watching things come together. But I did find it also offered some neat ways of exploring things, so plenty of credit for that.
The world also rewards doing more than following your objective markers, as you’ll not only find random quests to undertake, but also upgrade points. These come into play with upgrading Exo’s combat abilities – whether it’s making better use of her disc for attacking enemies, or more defensive features.
Speaking of combat, I found the mini-arena encounters offered a nice break from exploration. Essentially, you’ll be locked in a room with a bunch of enemies and need to clear them out to progress. Exo can either engage at range by throwing her disc at enemies, or go in for melee attacks, which I found more damaging, though it put her at greater risk.
Though if you’re good with timing, you can mitigate some of this as enemy attacks can be parried, setting up Exo to get more damaging attacks in response. I was sad that one of the coolest features is unlocked late in the game, and that’s stealing code from defeated enemies to gain temporary special attacks. They won’t turn the tables on their own, but I found them helpful enough in taking on the tougher elite forces you’ll encounter in the late game.
Something else I loved about the fights was the little challenges the game would spring up on occasion. They’re not all that complex, but I loved having a reason to try out different combat techniques and get some upgrade points as a reward. I kind of wish the game offered a little more in the upgrade system, if only because it meant you could skip a lot of them, especially later on, as you’d probably have gotten all those upgrades through other means.
Then there’s vehicles – Exo acquires a Light Cycle early on, which is handy for getting around the wider city map. As fun as this was to drive about, it’s a shame that combat didn’t offer the same experience. Part of that is down to level designs – the city area featuring plenty of tight streets and turns means it’s not the best battleground when zipping about at speed, especially as your only attack option is cutting your rivals off with the light trail.
But that’s pretty minor in the scale of things – I think there were only a few sequences when I had to fight through enemies on it to proceed, so I can’t complain all that much.
All up, I had a wonderful time exploring the Grid of TRON: Catalyst. The story, and the voice acting which goes alongside it, was by far the best part, especially as it ties together its themes of resistance and community in dealing with oppressive power structures. But it’s the gameplay which is important too, and while it might not be the big budget experience some wanted, I think the isometric angle makes for a great way to play. It’s frantic, yet offers a fair amount of challenge. Plus, it’s one game that, for the most part, doesn’t overstay its welcome, even if I feel the final chapter could have been streamlined just a bit with little lost.
TRON: Catalyst was reviewed on PC with code kindly supplied by the publisher.
